'Lost,' 'The Candidate': Watership, down

A review of tonight's "Lost" coming up just as soon as I steal your watch...

"Feel like we're running in circles?" -Sawyer

Not anymore, James. Not anymore.

We knew "Lost" wasn't going to end well for everyone, but this badly? This quickly?

"The Candidate" drastically accelerated the pace of the unhappy endings. The hour ultimately racked up up what I think is the series' highest body count ever in terms of regular characters, with Sayid, Sun, Jin and Lapidus all dying aboard the doomed Widmore submarine. And while versions of these characters still exist in the sideways universe - as we were reminded when Alt-Jin strode past Jack and Locke in the hospital, on his way to bring Alt-Sun a bouquet of flowers, after we saw Jin and Sun drown together on the sub - more and more we're being clued into the idea that the sideways universe is wrong and will have to go away in order for the real world to survive(*). And if that's the case, then we just saw three of the series' oldest characters (plus Lapidus) come to a permanent, premature ending.
(*) At least, that's my current operating theory, but I feel much more strongly about this one than I did about the epilogue-in-advance concept, which was mainly me trying to come up with something interesting to see in the early sideways stories.

And much as I loved the disaster movie intensity of the sub sequence - another fine "Lost" example of the Tension + Water = Awesome equation (see also Charlie in the Looking Glass) - I'm still wrestling with how I feel about that.

It's not that I don't want to deal with seeing beloved characters die. Death has always been a part of life on "Lost," though only sometimes for story reasons. (If Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje hadn't wanted to quit, I firmly believe that we'd be watching Mr. Eko give Smocke a good thumping with the Jesus stick right about now.) And so close to the end, I have no expectations that everyone will get out of here alive, or even that all of my favorites will.

No, what's still concerning me is the storytelling with each of these characters leading up to their deaths.

We spent the early portions of the season in the Temple watching Sayid come back from the dead, changed into something that terrified Dogen, and that seemed in personality to bear little resemblance to the Sayid Jarrah we knew. He was "infected" with something, just as Claire apparently was, and as Rousseau's team was, but nothing was ever explained beyond that, nor did we find out how/why the island resurrected him when it had never done so before. He was an empty killing machine, and then Desmond's soulful Scottish burr brought him back from the dark side, and then he took one for the team and carried the bomb as far away from the others as he could, and then... well, the mysteries of his resurrection (and his more pronounced English accent) will lie at the bottom of the ocean with the sub, I suppose.

I've talked before about how the writers kind of lost the thread of Jin and Sun by keeping them apart for as long as they did. But beyond them as a couple, I feel like the show lost sight of the two as individual characters. Jin was the guy off on his own during the time-jumps until they could land in a place where he could stop long enough to learn English, but his only real agenda was finding Sun. And I'm not sure what the point was of Sun's various twists and turns with Widmore and Ben and whatnot during the Oceanic Six period, nor was I ever entirely comfortable with the idea of her going back to the island for Jin while leaving Ji Yeon behind - at least not without us getting to see her agonize over that decision even a little. Ji Yeon began as a plot device during the period when the show was obsessed with the infertility storyline, then became an inconvenience when Sun had to go looking for her husband. (When Kate left Aaron to go find Claire, we got a chance to see how much it hurt her to do so.) As the sub was flooding and it became clear that Jin wasn't going to be able to get Sun out, I know I was supposed to be incredibly moved by Jin choosing to die with his wife - and Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim certainly played the hell out of that sequence - but all I could do was yell, "Tell him to get out of there for your daughter, Sun!"

So even as Sayid was sacrificing himself to give Jack a chance to stop Locke, and even as Jin was choosing to go to a watery grave with the woman he loved(**), I was largely thinking about missed opportunities and narrative dead ends. The writers clearly want me to side with Jack, who has come to believe there really is a grand purpose and explanation for all that's happened, and not with Smokey, who keeps claiming it's all random suffering, but good as tonight's episode was - and I spent large chunks of it holding my breath - there were moments where I found myself drifting over to Smokey's side of things.

(**) And I'm sure there's already speculation online that Jin made it out in the nick of time, just like he did when the freighter blew up - that the shot of their hands drifting apart came right before Jin saw that Sun was dead and chose to swim for it. But whatever issues I had with the drowning scene, Jin narrowly escaping death again would greatly cheapen what power it did have.

And yet so many other parts of "The Candidate" were so strong that I think I'm still ultimately on Jack's side (and I still find it hard to believe I'm typing a phrase like that after so many years of semi-professional Jack-hating).

Beyond the flooding sequence - one of the most suspenseful scenes Jack Bender's orchestrated in his six masterful seasons - we had that great moment right before Sayid took the bomb when Jack was arguing with Sawyer to let the stolen watch count down without trying to stop it. It was in many ways a mirror of the scene early in season two when Jack didn't want anyone to push the button in the hatch - only here, the man of science has become the man of faith, and believed the best way to avoid disaster was to do nothing but believe. Though I didn't like "Lighthouse" itself, the journey that Jack's been on ever since has been really interesting to watch, and that moment played off of everything we know about Jack, and Sawyer, and the real John Locke.

And speaking of that guy, sort of, the sideways scenes didn't advance that part of the story as much as some of the recent Desmond-ified episodes did, but I still thought they worked very well. There was some movement - with Jack being troubled to realize that he keeps crossing paths with people who were on Oceanic 815 with him, and with the semi-conscious Locke uttering various lines of dialogue Locke uttered in the real world - but mainly it was one more Jack/Locke two-hander where the two come close to finding common ground but never quite get there, and with some of Terry O'Quinn and Matthew Fox's best work together.

We learn that Locke's version of the monkey's paw happy ending is a life where he has Helen's love, and where Anthony Cooper was a great father and not a kidney-stealing monster, but also one where alt-Locke feels the physical and emotional burden every day of having ended any semblance of a life that great father had. He's punishing himself for that, just as Jack in both universes so often pushes himself too far to try to apologize to an unfair, unforgiving father.

And just as the sideways universe has allowed the show to have its cake and eat it - to kill Locke in one universe (albeit one where Smokey now looks and sounds just like him) while having him alive in another - I imagine we'll be seeing more of Sayid and the Kwons in the sideways stories. And perhaps the sideways universe might even allow their real-world stories to get the closure they appear to have been denied tonight.

But right now, the show has lost three more original, indelible characters. Oceanic 815 left Sydney with 324 people aboard. Nearly all of them are gone. Walt's on the mainland, Rose and Bernard might still be out there somewhere (depending on whether Jughead sent them forward in time or not), and we don't know if Cindy and the kids are among the members of Locke's army who scattered into the jungle. But for all intents and purposes, we're down to five survivors of that flight: Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, Kate and Claire. Living together or alone, that's one hell of a body count.

RIP, Sayid, Sun and Jin.

Damn.

Some other thoughts:

For that matter, RIP, Lapidus. Alas, Lapidus, we knew him - vaguely. He dies as one of a handful of regular cast characters (I think Libby and Ilana are the only others) to die without getting a solo spotlight episode, and it was clear he stuck around as long as he did mainly because Darlton got a kick out of Jeff Fahey's exasperated delivery, even if he only got to do it once every three or four episodes.

Bad as I felt for Alt-Locke, when I looked at Cooper in the nursing home, I was mainly pleased to see some version of the SOB suffer a fate worse than death.

Too bad Jack and Smokey sprung Sawyer and company from the polar bear cages so quickly. Would have been swell to see if Sawyer still remembered how to get a few fish biscuits.

In addition to Locke's semi-conscious ramblings from the real universe, we also got Jack offering Claire an Apollo bar (just like Jacob helped him get one), and Locke very clearly pausing because he recognized the phrase "I wish you believed me."

First post at the new digs, but same rules apply - specifically, be courteous of your fellow posters, and no spoilers of any kind (including any discussion whatsoever of the previews for next week's episode). With that in mind, what did everybody else think?

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

Comments

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I loved tonight's episode. Jack had great scenes, As did Locke, and Jin and Sun too. I think tonight's reunion of Jin and Sun was much better then the one we got last week. Unfortunately it just wasn't meant to last.

I hope Frank will survive and pop up during the finale to save the day at a crucial moment. An off screen death just would not suit him.

You can check out my full video review of the episode at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeKYRq4BWpQ

Oh, and Mr. Sepinwall, the RSS seems to be working fine now! (which makes me a very happy man.)

I don't think Lapidus is actually dead. Weren't you a big purveyor of the "no body, no death" rule when it came to Desmond? I'm going with that for Lapidus as well. Plus, everyone would have had to step over him on the way out of the sub, and that just doesn't seem reasonable. I expect to see him swim ashore just as Miles, Richard, and Ben arrive at that same shore. Seems pretty likely to me.

I really enjoyed this episode -- and I thought the four deaths were appropriate. Sayid is a hero and believes that Jack will be the last hero standing; Sun and Jin, after years apart, die together; Lapudis dies with a quip. If Lost ends well, the writers will explain just why so many beloved characters had to die. And, if the writers wait to kill many people at the end, it would be too much death to process. We knew Sayid and at least one Kwon had to die, so I thought tonight's episode killed them in a suspenseful, dramatic, and emotional way.

Questions:
Significance of the music box? Same as the one we saw with Rous. on the island?
Jack and Locke; Jack wrods echo Locke's in his suicide note...
Now that it is clear that NotLocke is REALLY bad and trying to kill the candidates,doea that make Widmore simply a different kind of bad or a little more good?

And, I love Jack, so I am happy to see him redeemed somewhat is some posters' eyes.

Alan, you speak about how we we will be seeing a lot of these people in future episode...but there are only 4 hours of this show left! There's no time! I don't really understand how they are going to stitch this together in 4 hours, but I wait excitedly nonetheless.

And to eulogize Mr. Jarrah, I quote you this, one of the top 10 moments in Lost history (IMO):

We did find your balloon, Henry Gale, exactly how you described it. We also found the grave you described -- your wife's grave. The grave you said you dug with your own bare hands. It was all there. Your whole story -- your alibi -- it was true. But still I did not believe it to be true. So I dug up that grave and found that there was not a woman inside. There was a man. A man named Henry Gale.

Now that's what i'm talking about...great episode. Of course lots of sad death, of course, but we had to assume some would go, right? And if that was case, not surprised that Jack, Hurley, Kate and Sawyer remain among the living.

My biggest question...where has this Jack Shepard been for the last five years??? I like alt-Jack A LOT. Best episode ever for Matthew Fox, to the point I might owe him an apology after my "bashing" him at times.

Now that Jin and Sun are no more and we saw Bernie the dentist in one life but the other, I am 100000000% convinced Adam and Eve are Rose and Bernard. The only time we seem to get one person ion the alt world but not on the island is when they are dead in real time. Only exception I can think of is Penny and there is a reasonable excuse for that.

Also, ladies, you know you were hoping Jack was going in for the CPR kiss, weren't u?

I'll say this much...I never thought that I would cry when watching a TV show, but this was about as close as it came. When the 4 got to the beach and Hurley started to breakdown (he who is almost always comic relief) it sent a chill down my spine. This episode was probably the best acted of the season. Well done.

As someone who has wept many, many times in front of the television, this sequence left me mostly cold. I wish the Sun/Jin character and relationship thread hadn't been dropped so much and that Sayid's character hadn't been effectively killed long before that bomb went off.

Now that's what i'm talking about...great episode. Of course lots of sad death, of course, but we had to assume some would go, right? And if that was case, not surprised that Jack, Hurley, Kate and Sawyer remain among the living.

My biggest question...where has this Jack Shepard been for the last five years??? I like alt-Jack A LOT. Best episode ever for Matthew Fox, to the point I might owe him an apology after my "bashing" him at times.

Now that Jin and Sun are no more and we saw Bernie the dentist in one life but the other, I am 100000000% convinced Adam and Eve are Rose and Bernard. The only time we seem to get one person ion the alt world but not on the island is when they are dead in real time. Only exception I can think of is Penny and there is a reasonable excuse for that.

Also, ladies, you know you were hoping Jack was going in for the CPR kiss, weren't u?

- one last thing i read on a different blog; the "final" 4 are Kate, Jack, Hurley and Sawyer...those were the four on the list Ben gave to Michael at the end of Season 2 to bring over to the Others. Hmmmm

I hear ya, especially on Jack Kate and Sawyer. But as much as I love Hurley - and IMO there is NO WAY they kill him - his role easily could have been taken by Sayid or Sun/Jin. I'm still thinking there is a reason the same four survived the sub that were taken to the dock that day. Maybe I just need more evidence that plot points were planned out from early on...

Gotta say, I love that Sayid spent 5 3/4 seasons being pulled back and forth between those who wanted to use him for good and those who needed him to do bad (even if occasionally for good reason). And in the end he made the choice to sacrifice himself and give Jack a chance to stop what he seemed to have decided was evil. Nice bit of agency and, if not an ideal finale to Island Sayid's story, close enough.

I am glad I am not the only one who felt a little cheated by the Jin-Sun death scene tonight. I had suspected that one of the pair would ultimately survive, and on some level I found the scene moving but still a little flat and empty. I am starting to wonder if the legions of Lost fans will curse this final season in much the same way many BSG fans (wrongly) disowned that show's cappers.

As one of those hard-core BSG fans who damned its finale (and really its finale 1.5 seasons), I can't see that happening with Lost. Season 6 may be the worst season of Lost so far (which I think it is), but it's still excellent and shows no signs of fracking up the ending.

To me, Sun and Jin's death felt not like a cheat but like the gauntlet being thrown down. Clearly no one (outside of Jack) is safe at this point.

As for Jin not swimming for it, he tells Jack he won't make it without the respirator and likely felt the same applied to him. Even then, Jin looks away the last time Sun asks him to leave, presumably thinking about Ji-Yeon and his chances to make it out of the sinking sub alive and ultimately chose to die with his wife.

At this point, the only way Lost could end anything similar to BSG would be to have Katey Segal show up on the island out of nowhere, explain the series' entire mythology in a five-minute monologue, and then it turns out that Jacob is literally God and has planned the entire show in order to warn about the dangers of dancing robots.

Just to clarify, I was generally satisfied with the conclusion of BSG. Some sloppy execution, but overall I felt the finale fit in with what we had seen before.

As far as Lost goes, I reserve final judgment until we see the final 4 hours plus another half hour per an ABC press release today. I am just put off by the odd narrative dead-ends within this season. Seasons 4 and 5 seemed tightly plotted, but 6 has not been so far. Let's see if Darlton can stick the landing.

I agree with Craig that at least the final season of BSG gave its characters endings that were consistent with their arcs. The Sun-Jin death scene was well acted and directed, but the characters essentially had no agency in the matter. They were collateral damage.

And I am not so sure that Lost is setting up a more complicated mythology for the finale. How different is Jacob's string pulling from that of Chip Six?

I feel like Jin & Sun's deaths were almost a cheat. 3 seasons of waiting for them to get back together, and 1 episode later they're done? And there was no point to it, no meaning. I feel like the characters deserved more, and we as fans deserved more. Gotta say, first time in 6 years I've been truly mad at Darlton. Frustrated before, yes. But that choice has me feeling, dare I say, betrayed, for the first time.

I'm upset about it only because it means that Sun not flashing to the past with Jack/Kate/Hurley/Sayid on Ajira was nothing more than a plot device to keep her and Jin apart. I really had believe/hoped that the producers would never stoop to plot devices. And let's not even talk about having Sun lose her voice. Quite possibly the worst storyline this show has ever had, even worse than Nikki and Paulo.

What kind of complaint is that? That's like saying Romeo and Juliet sucked because all they wanted was to be together and just as soon as they got a chance to be together they died due to a terrible mis-communication. Sun and Jin story is supposed to be a tragedy- they were estranged for such a long time, as soon as they reconciled they were seperated for 3 years during which they desperately tried to get to find each other and as soon as they did, they died. It's so good because it's so tragic.

Okay, I've seen the comment about Sun and Jin not considering Ji-Yeon before their death several times so I'm going to post this and I hope don't come across as mean, I'm just saying what you know is true deep down in your heart. Kids are over-rated, the entertainment industries glorifies kids. I find it perfectly natural that Jin & Sun don't care about Ji-Yeon in the moment of death, most people won't. Jin and Sun have known each other for so many years whereas Ji-Yeon has been in Sun's life only for 2.5 years and Jin has never met her. I don't have kids but even if I did I can pretty much guarantee that I'd be more concerned about being with my bf than asking him to go take care of the kid, esp if the kid is being taken care of by the grandmother. And I'm sure that would be the case with most of you commenting. So let's just leave aside the entertainment industry paradigm about kids being the most important thing in the world at the door.

Okay, I've seen the comment about Sun and Jin not considering Ji-Yeon before their death several times so I'm going to post this and I hope don't come across as mean, I'm just saying what you know is true deep down in your heart. Kids are over-rated, the entertainment industries glorifies kids. I find it perfectly natural that Jin & Sun don't care about Ji-Yeon in the moment of death, most people won't. Jin and Sun have known each other for so many years whereas Ji-Yeon has been in Sun's life only for 2.5 years and Jin has never met her. I don't have kids but even if I did I can pretty much guarantee that I'd be more concerned about being with my bf than asking him to go take care of the kid, esp if the kid is being taken care of by the grandmother. And I'm sure that would be the case with most of you commenting. So let's just leave aside the entertainment industry paradigm about kids being the most important thing in the world at the door.

@ The Orangeâ€¦.
While I like your name (being a Syracuse U. fan), I have to disagree with your points about Ji-Yeon. I hope this doesnâ€™t come across as condescending, but unless you have kids of your own you probably canâ€™t understand it. When youâ€™re a parent, your kids are on your mind pretty much all the time, and even moreso at times of crisis. Their well-being is one of the primary considerations in almost all aspects of your life. So, no, it was not realistic at all for Sun to not mention Ji-Yeon.

So before this turns into a parents vs. non-parents thing I'd like to point out that different people are going to react differently to this situation regardless of whether they have kids or not. Personally, I felt that we were reminded about Ji-Yeon earlier in the episode specifically so that there would be that subtext to the entire scene. It's not like Jin was choosing to die with Sun and abandon his daughter rather than take a five minute stroll down the road to pick up his daughter from Grandma's house.

Considering the relationship both characters had with their parents, I do think it is unrealistic that Sun wouldn't want Jin to survive for Ji-Yeon (aside from the very natural parental protection they both must feel). It didn't really seem like even Jin alone could have made it out, but it was just strange that they both accepted that and chose to die together rather than make some attempt to be there for their child.

@The Orange,I disagree wholeheartedly that it's normal that Sun and Jin would not be thinking about their daughter at the time of death. Because kids are born so helpless, your every waking moment (even your sleeping ones) becomes all about taking care of their needs. You are freaked out about the awesome responsibility that you have to care for them. It's a habit, a way of thinking that is impossible to break, especially regarding a toddler.

Like I said before, the kid is not in any danger. He is being taken care of by a perfectly nice lady. Having a child does not mean you stop being selfish. In that moment the love of his life his dying in front of his. You guys are just subscribing to hollywood's idea that kids are apparently the most important thing in people's lives.

@Toeknee I'm not a parent but I can try putting myself in that situation, just like no one here has been in a situation where they are watching their significant other die yet are commenting on what the right thing to do is in that situation and what I'm telling you is that the kid would be the last thing on my mind esp when the kid is safe, and I'm sure that would be the case with most people here as well but they are just not willing to admit it since it's not the politically correct thing to say. Love for almost a decade trumps any feeling Jin might have about the kid whom he hasn't even met. That does not make Sun and Jin bad parents it just makes them human.

@Chrissy I think you are mistaken, Sun's mom has always been shown in a sympathetic light. She helped her in past in escaping a bad marriage and she does not seem to have a relationship with Sun's father. Sun left her daughter with her for a reason.

The Orange, obviously you feel the way you feel, and that's fine. But I don't think the people who disagree with you are buying into some Hollywood idea (I'm not sure I know what you mean by that), especially in the case of people who actually have kids and know how they feel about them. Many people love their kids more than their own life and would be thinking of them in moments of distress. This isn't unusual, and it strikes many of us as odd that no mention of the baby was made at that time.

This isn't a judgment on people who feel otherwise, but it's kind of insulting to tell someone they would only feel this way because Hollywood tells them they should.

FWIW, E! online has an interview with Daniel Dae Kim and hereâ€™s an excerpt:

Q:And yet I have to ask about Jin's motivations. Obviously he really loved Sun, but how do you justify in your own mind that Jin would stay with Sun, knowing that he was orphaning his daughter Ji Yeon?

A:That's an excellent point. I can tell you that we received [new script] pages as we were shooting the episode that added a scene in the bear cages where Jin asks what happened to Ji Yeon. And you hear Jin asking Sun who's taking care of the girl. And so that was deliberately put in there so that he would know that she wasn't completely an orphan. Also, in the sub, there's a moment that's not scripted where I looked away from Sun toward the door and I wondered, "Should I go?" That was my moment for Ji Yeon. I thought to myself, "Can I do this?" But the decision I made at that point was that even if I tried to leave I wouldn't have made it, because I had no oxygen and the submarine was so far under water. All I can say is that I'm sure Damon and Carlton took the concern of Ji Yeon to heart when they wrote the episode.

Great episode, and my jaw dropped to the floor when Kate got shot (thought they killed her off since she wasn't on the list) and didn't get picked back up till the episode was over (but then dropped again during a good episode of V).

I too was yelling at Jin to swim away for his child, I still can't believe that Sun did not force him to leave her! Too bad, I was rooting for these crazy kids over Penny and Desmond (even though I know you like them more Alan).

"...Anthony Cooper was a great father and not a kidney-stealing monster..."

Do we know that for sure? This Cooper was still a con artist in his youth, responsible for the death of Sawyer's parents. Maybe this Cooper was in the process of conning Locke (though possibly not for a kidney) but the crash occurred before Locke learned the truth. And maybe when Sawyer tracks this Cooper down, Locke will learn about what kind of man his father really was.

My thoughts exactly! I believe Locke was spared that pain in alterna-world when the plane crashed and Cooper's days as a con artist ended. I think this guy was the same Cooper Sawyer's hunting. Locke was spared and Cooper got what he deserved.

Locke talking about the plane he crashed made me think of the Nigerian Beechcraft he found on the Island. If Alt-Locke was in the wheelchair the same length of time as original-Locke, then Alt-Locke's plane accident would've happened at about the same time as the Beechcraft crash, right? Or am I mistaking coincidence for fate?

I feel like Jin & Sun's deaths were almost a cheat. 3 seasons of waiting for them to get back together, and 1 episode later they're done? And there was no point to it, no meaning. I feel like the characters deserved more, and we as fans deserved more. Gotta say, first time in 6 years I've been truly mad at Darlton. Frustrated before, yes. But that choice has me feeling, dare I say, betrayed, for the first time.

I agree completely, both with your assessment of the deaths and Alan's that the writers had lost the threads of Jin's and Sun's characters for quite a while now. Their death really did feel like a cheat.

Episodes like this make me forget the long journey this season has been. It swept me off my feet and kept me on my edge. I was so invested that I didn't care if Sun & Jin's child would be without a parent. This is emotionally development due to execution I enjoy and makes me not care about all the unanswered questions and other tricks they've pulled.

One other great moment was alternative John Locke in the bed sleeping and muttering "push the button." Great recall to his relationship with Jack and the Hatch.

I've always been a fan of Jack's character. I loved Sawyer's reaction to Jack - he wanted to trust him but couldn't. Holloway nailed it.

I can't help to think this isn't the end. I'm not sure about anything. A fraction of my thought process does not think the sideways verse is a mistake, but a gift.

there were moments where I found myself drifting over to Smokey's side of things.

This is the observation I don't understand. You spend most of this post lamenting Sayid, Jin, and Sun's deaths, and then turn around and say you're still kind of siding with the guy who killed them. Doesn't compute.

By the way, I'm not convinced at all that Frank's dead. They certainly weren't as explicit with him as they were with the other three. If they wanted to convey that he was dead, they would've done more than have him get smacked by a door, never to be seen again. The general equation for this show is "Ambiguous death = No death."

I think the "siding with smokey" comment was in terms of Smokey arguing that their was no grand plan to the events on the Island, and the deaths of Sayid, Sun and Jin can be viewed as supporting this thesis.

Oh I don't know about that -- too often, it feels like Jack and Sawyer do things incredibly stupid and lethal (to others) for no other reason than to be a plot driver. Which, I guess, is structurally useful but I've pretty much given up caring less about anything Jack does.

I think that the bomb was rigged to explode either way -- at it's normal countdown speed if nothing was done (Jack) or at increased speed if the wires were pulled (Sawyer). FLocke wanted them all dead. Sawyer's actions actually decreased the potential body count. Because the timer sped up, they were forced to act in ways to save themselves. If they had all stood and waited no one would have survived.

Jack's point was, I think, that the bomb wasn't going to go off because the island would have prevented it to save the candidates, like the dynamite that Richard wanted Jack to kill him with. Smokey can't actively kill any candidate, but he can trick them into killing each other (much like he tricked Ben into killing Jacob, something Smokey couldn't do himself).

While I follow OTL's logic,if I'm Flocke and I can't actively kill the candidates, how does a hidden bomb help me? If the bomb wouldn't have gone off (Jack being right) then killing them via the bomb would require the candidates to FIND it first. So, for me, the jury's still out on this point. I am loving all the mental gymnastics. I'm really going to miss this show.

Agreed - a lot of death, really fast. And while i too felt that Jin and Sun's story was labored the last couple of seasons, they had an excellent arc the first couple of seasons that i remained a fan - more so of Jin than Sun. (I never quite bought the "Oceanic 6 bad ass Sun who destroys her father and leaves her child")

Sayid has been one of my favorites (he had me at the 'Henry Gale' interrogation scene). that said, Sayid was already gone and i've mourned that loss for weeks. i didn't like seeing the shell of a man and it's probably better to just let him lie.
And has great as Terry OQuinn is, i'm still sad that Locke died.

I know that a lot of fans came into this last season with lots of expectations for what the Lost writers owed them as viewers. I've wanted to let the story play out as it would, but if there was one thing I was hoping for from the story, it would be a happy ending for Sun, Jin and Ji Yeon. I suppose it's still possible with the ending in the alt-timeline. But f they're alone and about to drown, are they really going to be speaking English to each other?

The pacing of the season just seems off. Part of it may be because the writers are trying to save as much mystery to the end, part of it may be just because the sideways un8iverse is such an unfamiliar construct.

With the week off, it seems like an extra-long time since the last episode, and a super-long time since we've spent any time with Ben and Richard in the present timeline-- so the pacing of the season see

Seconded. Sun and Jin using a foreign language as they spke their last words to each other was so unrealistic that it completely destroyed the impact of the scene for me. It happened in an earlier episode this season too, at least this time they spoke some korean before going back to rehearsing their english.

Are people really not reading your piece, Alan? You left a graf hanging!

"He's punishing himself for that, just as Jack in both universes so often pushes himself too far to try to apologize to an unfair, unforgiving father, and right now" uh - yah? :)

Not to keep beating up on you, but I'm finding myself more and more diverging from your opinion on LOST. You keep wanting everything to tie together in a neat bow, and I find that instead we're seeing epic storytelling here. If the Sun and Jin scenes from the last few episodes had been more 'correct' as you seem to have wanted them, the emotional tug of what happened here would not have been as strong. Here are two people that have been patiently searching for each other, they are finally given their moment - and the evil that is MiB has now revealed itself for all the awfulness that it is. Seeing Hurley lose made me bawl uncontrollably. Jack and the rest are now going to be so committed to righting all this - it, as a previous commenter just said 'is throwing the gauntlet down.' There is nothing that I would change in what is happening - pieces have been moving, some slowly, some quickly, but it is all servicing the overall story - and will culminate in a showdown between WHITE and DARK. I can't wait for it.

I don't mean to reply to myself, but Alan I noticed you still haven't corrected your incomplete post. Just waving my arms here - don't the rest of you see it? - please bring it to Alan's attention if you can, he'll eventually notice, I'm sure!

One last theory: Now that he has given up trying to fix things, Jack will fix things. I think we can all agree that everyone is sideways world is better off than they are on Island. As much as it would have felt like a cheat at the beginning of the season to have sideways LA survive and the Island reality disappear, tonight was the first time when I truly began rooting for out characters to live their sideways lives with the knowledge of what they lost on Island. Jack created sideways LA with an assist from Faraday and Juliet and I think now he'll find a way to keep that universe going once the game that's being played in the Island reality is over. Maybe that's the prize for winning. About as close to a happy ending as we're likely to get at this point, anyway.

The key to all of this--on island and in alt-time--has to be Desmond. The single biggest and most important untied plotline in alt-time is the farraday/desmond/penny/eloise connection ("You aren't ready yet, Desmond"); what does farraday have up his sleeve is alt-time? what is Desmond going to do on the island?

Sayid let Jack know where Desmond is and that Locke wants him dead...and then he tells Jack that he is going to be the one...[to save the island? replace jacob? defeat Smokey? make Sayid's wish come true?]

To paraphase, he told Jack that Desmond is still on the island, alive in a well, and that Jack is the chosen one - there was special emphasis on him being the only one capable of doing this - to save him (Desmond).

I've noticed minor complaints about Sayid's switch back to the good side but it all adds up. 1st, he listened to Desmond. 2nd, MIB-Locke exposed himself with the bomb. Notice, Sayid's complete switch when Jack is proven right and MIB-Locke wrong.

This one was so thick with parallels and callbacks and whatnottery that I'm sure I'll have to watch it again to not feel frustrated.

But I am frustrated, because the show has the characters pinballing around so fast that the senselessness gets to be apparent. They escape from Flocke! They get rescued by Flocke! They escape from Flocke! But wait, that's just what he wanted them to do, because there's something in the rules we don't know about that allows him to maybe accomplish something in a certain situation, maybe.

You're so totally on about the short shrift given Sayid and Sun and Jin, who -- given all the time we've wasted this season in and out of temples and otherwise wandering around -- could have instead had their conflicts expressed in a meaningful way. I was happy that Sayid finally got to be "a good man" through sacrifice, but I absolutely have no understanding what was at play in his corrupted soul. I had the exact same feeling about Sun & Jin's daughter, and all I could think was that Daddy Issues Island perpetuates itself by creating an army of orphans offshore.

The action and acceleration were nice, but I really wanted to spend more time in the sideways universe this week. Because that storyline was Jack and Locke, and they had a superb moment of growth and agreement at the end, and those are the sort of long-developed character beats I was hoping for down this home stretch.